Anderson Silva would fight Nick Diaz at UFC 212, but not Vitor Belfort or Luke Rockhold

Anderson Silva is looking for an interesting fight at UFC 212, but it looks like he’s not interested in fighting a couple of top guys.

Anderson Silva is currently opponent-less for UFC 212, and was forced to face off with himself at the UFC 212 press conference today. With Kelvin Gastelum off the card due to a marijuana test failure, a lot of fighters are naturally expressing interest in bout with the former middleweight king. As for Silva though, he’s quite particular about who he wants to face, and made it clear at the UFC 212 press conference (via MMA Fighting). Surprisingly, the list doesn’t include Luke Rockhold or Vitor Belfort:

“I’m coming off a win, right, after a long time without wins, so it doesn’t make sense to fight any of them because they are both coming off losses. It’s not something that will add anything for me. It doesn’t make sense.

“I’m ready to fight whoever the UFC puts there. It doesn’t matter who that is, be someone who’s coming off wins and adds something to my legacy, otherwise it doesn’t make sense.”

Rockhold hasn’t fought since he lost the UFC middleweight title to Michael Bisping, while Belfort has lost three in a row and has stated that a fight on the Rio card would be the last of his career.

Oddly though, the rule he just set for his potential opponent doesn’t seem to matter if he gets the chance to fight someone he has met before – Nick Diaz:

“It’s something that was on the table, too, it’s possible that it happens this fight with Nick. I respect him, he’s an excellent fighter. It would be an interesting fight. It would be cool because this fight makes sense. The (first) fight was a no contest, so we’ll see. Anything can happen.”